email in libraries

[Elvio Pederzolli]

Hello

WE are seeking to expand the way we offer email to our library users. At
the moment we offer web based e mail only - eg Hotmail etc - but are
thinking of providing access to users who may have a POP 3 based
account.

This presents problems because users are required to enter their account
details into the mail reader - this information could be used by
subsequent users of the mail software if someone does not clear their
personal details from the mail reader. Also if a user has downloaded
his/her mail it could be read by other users if they fail to delete it.

While you could run a batch file to blow away all downloaded mail at the
end of a session - making sure that a users contact details have been
removed is more difficult. We don't have the staff to check this all the
time so it need to be automated.

What are other libraries doing about this ?

WE are also thinking of offering access to users accounts via telnet.
Has anyone experienced any problem with this ?

Thanking you

Elvio Pederzolli